Age is just a number.

Darkhorse, I think your new nickname may be Air Darkhorse, man, you are catching some air with your stride, must really be kooking that pavement.

Stay Kool, Liter than Air, B of BS Rools out

Nice run, and nice video. Keep that tank full for Del Sol!

That video is like a kick to the chest every time I watch it. Why could he not just hold on to at least 3rd?

He gave up early. He would've had third if he had pushed through the finish line. It looks like he almost got confused about where the finish line was, he was leaning way forward way too early. Still an inspiration though. I'd say it was just one bad race.

It was a bad race. He ran a faster time in the U.S.A trials to get to the Olympics. In fact if he would have ran that time he would have won. The only part that sucks is that he died and never got to go back and redeem himself.

He lost the gold for a number of reasons that can be summarized in one - Viren came to the race more fit. He lost the bronze because he tried for the gold too hard.

Yeah I can pretty much agree with that. I still think he could have ran with Viren because of his trials times. He should have hung back the whole time and not tried to break everyone so early. But then again that was Pre's style.

I actually have heard it the other way. He didn't push the first half of the race as hard as usual, which left the fast closers with the advantage. And I don't think that Viren was necessarily more fit than Pre. Viren had a more powerful kick is all. But his kick wouldn't have mattered if Pre had run his race from the get go. I think Pre got intimidated (for the first time in his life) and hung back a little in the early stages.

Your kick not so much a matter of speed at it is a matter of how hard you had to work to get to the kicking position.

I'm sure fatigue is part of it, but don't you thing that some people are just faster sprinters (more fast twitch muscle fibers) and that they have an advantage as you approach the finish line? Especially in a shorter race like a 5K?

A 5K specialist can only be that much or that little of a natural sprinter. Too much, and he becomes a miler or a shorter distance specialist. Too little, and he has to move to 10,000 or higher. I would imagine the fastest sprinter in that group would have been no faster than 11.0 in an all out 100, and the slowest no slower than 12.0. Yet if you timed their last 100 in the race, you would see much bigger differences, and they would not necessarily correlate with the differences in an all-out sprint. The difference in the all-out sprint ability comes into play only if both runners are fresh enough to reach it. In this race, the kick started with 1 mile to go, which I believe was run in around 4:00. This made the top end speed matter even less as long as you had enough to run a 4:00 mile, it was more about who was the freshest off a tempo pace in the first 2 miles, who would accumulate the least lactic acid during the kick, and after that who had the best lactic acid tolerance. I think Viren won on all three counts.

Miruts Yifter could run 22-23sec 200 meter sprint and that was at the end of a 500 meter race. He was nicknamed Yifter the shifter and was awesome at most distances.

Air Darkhorse, painful to watch the video again. Only thought, Pre only wanted to win, did anything other than the gold matter? Nobody mentioned the blood doping of Viren? Fact or fiction?

Stay Kool, B of BS Rools out

To Pre, winning with style and guts was everything. As far as Viren is concerned,I don't think anyone will know for sure. Viren and his coach were very methodical and long ranged in their planning and execution. A lot of runners could beat Viren in the off season, but not in an Olympic year. It's all about training and peaking at the right time perhaps...

Steve--After I spoke with you at the 15K last week, I spoke with my group and some are interested in having you coach us. We had a few questions though. Could you e-mail me at cherkeith@msn.com and I will let you know what those questions are. Thanks!